THE DIPLOMATIC FRONT: As Israel braces for an expected attack from Iran, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that the Biden administration is seeking “to turn the temperature down” in the region. 

  Following Israel’s assassination of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said retaliation was Tehran’s “legal right”, according to Iranian state media. Diplomats fear that Iran’s response could trigger a regional war.

  In the midst of this, the US has approved a $20 billion arms sale to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, Air-to-Air Missiles, tank ammunition, high explosive mortars, and tactical vehicles. Little of it would arrive in time for the current situation.

VOTER CHOICE: Arizona voters will be able to vote in November on a measure that would establish a constitutional right to abortion in that state. It’s something that could help turn out voters for Kamala Harris in what is a swing state for presidential elections.

  The Arizona secretary of state’s office said it has certified 577,971 signatures collected by abortion rights groups, 50 percent more than required. It is reported to be the largest number of certified signatures for any ballot measure in state history.

  Voters will be presented a similar measure in Missouri, where more than enough signatures have been collected to put the question on the ballot. Abortion rights groups so far have been able to get such laws passed in all seven states where abortion has been put directly to voters in the two years since the Supreme Court overthrew the national right to abortion.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE: Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance and his allies have his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz, on the defensive about his military record. Vance is a former Marine.

  Walz spent 24 years in the National Guard, but Republicans are accusing him of retiring to dodge a one-year deployment to Iraq. Walz joined the Guard just after turning 17 and retired in 2005 to run for Congress before his unit was given orders to deploy.

  The Republicans are also splitting hairs over Walz saying during a 2018 campaign event that “we can make sure those weapons of war that I carried in war” are not on America’s streets.  He was never in war and a spokesman spokesman said that Walz “misspoke” during the 2018 exchange.

  “I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” Walz said at the convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice.”  

THE WAR ROOM: Hamas militants say that two of its guards shot and killed one male Israeli hostage held in Gaza and seriously wounded two females. The Israeli military said in response that it did “not have any intelligence information that allows us to refute or confirm Hamas’s claims”. No identities were released. 

 The spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades said on Telegram that the shootings occurred in two separate incidents and that “attempts are being made to save” the lives of those wounded.

THE DAY THE NEWS DIED: CBS announced that its New York news radio station, Newsradio 880, an informational lifeline to the metropolitan area for nearly 60 years, will change its call letters and convert to ESPN sports talk radio near the end of the month.

  There was a time when you could jump into any New York cab and the driver was tuned to 880. The station covered politics, crime, large events and small. It delivered traffic and weather reports every 10 minutes on the 8s. It was one of the last outlets of immediacy on AM radio. 

  Officials with Audacity, WCBS’s parent company, cited “headwinds facing local journalism nationwide.” They also own the last remaining all news AM radio station in New York, WINS.

THE OBIT PAGE: Peggy Moffitt, a style setter of the 1960s with her bobbed hair and dark eye makeup who modelled designer Rudi Gernreich’s topless bathing suit, died on Saturday at home in Beverly Hills. She was 86.

  A stipulation of her deal to model the swim suit was that she would never have to wear it in public. Of course, this was long before the near-naked fashions of today and the mini-clothes word by Kanye West’s wife, Bianca Censori.

  The photo of the topless suit that had thin suspenders and a high waisted bottom became iconic in the fashion world. “Think of something in your life that took one-sixtieth of a second to do,” Moffitt said in 2012. “Now, imagine having to spend the rest of your life talking about it. I think it’s a beautiful photograph, but, oh, am I tired of talking about it.”

THE SPIN RACK: Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, says he is stepping down next month, giving in to pressure within his own party to abandon his unpopular leadership. — Former Cornell University student Patrick Dai, a 22-year-old from Pittsford, NY, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for posting violent threats against Jewish students last fall. He had pleaded guilty. — Singer Katy Perry’s production company is under investigation after filming a video in environmentally-protected dunes in Spain’s Balearic Islands. — In Ohio, former Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb has been charged with murder in the shooting of a pregnant 21-year-old suspected of shoplifting. The woman’s car was rolling toward Grubb when he shot her.

BELOW THE FOLD: Conservative commentator Glenn Beck said that, “If we lose this election we may not make it as a constitutional Republic by 2026. That’s not hyperbole.”

  Beck said, “I hope that I’m completely wrong on that.”

  Oh, good, because we were worried that it was hyperbole.

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